By Hand
by jenni3penny
Summary: "He was perfectly comfortable sharing secreted silliness with the scientist right out in front of all of them, as if to remind them that he had so many secrets, so many facets, and so many parts that they just weren't privy to... that made her a bit jealous." Kibbs.
1. Chapter 1

She'd noticed it within... god, the first six solid hours of working with the both of them. Not the oddly endearing sort of mental voodoo thing they did. Not the affectionate way they leaned closer and closer and playfully teased and touched and how in the hell was that fair? That Abby got smiles and kisses and caffeine as rewards and she got a brand spankin' new pile of paperwork to plod through?

(He liked to toy with her ego, play the 'but you're the profiler' card right before he dumped a stack of musty folders on her desk. Frankly, it was damn near as annoying as some of DiNozzo's _lesser_ disturbing habits. Or, well, it would have been if he didn't always tip her a look that said he needed it done, fast and thorough and with some blindly infinite trust.)

Not that she was jealous... Sweet Christ, only a curmudgeon could be jealous of Abby's infectious and exuberant passion for what she did, for what all of them did.

Hell, maybe even a curmudgeon couldn't fault her.

Because even _Gibbs_ liked to lean kisses on her cheek when she was especially brilliant.

It was the signing that caught her attention. The manual language, all tactile and silent in its tethering between the two of them. That's what made her a little jealous, actually. That Abby could fluently speak an entire language of words with the man she couldn't pry two or three complimentary comments out of on any given day. That he was perfectly comfortable sharing secreted silliness with the scientist right out in front of all of them, as if to remind them that he had so many secrets, so many facets, and so many parts that they just weren't privy to... that made her a bit jealous.

Because she'd wanted more and more and to know all of it from the beginning.

And the only answers she seemed to be able to find were in the indecipherable movement of his hands (which, were exceptionally gorgeous and strong if it came right down to it).

* * *

 _Pretty._

Yes. That was definitely 'pretty'.

She'd caught that one. She'd seen enough crappy late night television while folding laundry and trying to wind down from work. Gotten enough pop culture exposure to know that whatever movement Abby had circled around her face meant 'pretty'.

He'd just half smiled on a shrugging, head angled slightly downward as he'd made other motions before repeating the same one.

 _Pretty._

Kate frowned and lifted her glance toward the screen they were standing in front of, blinking as she silently studied the photo of the missing Petty Officer. Sure, okay... yeah, sorta pretty. In a very blonde and blue-eyed and corn-fed All American way.

Too not-a-redhead for him, too wholesome looking for Abby.

But if they were gonna just comment on the woman's looks she wasn't necessarily needed anymore.

"Kate?" Gibbs' was jerking his jaw higher as she started away from the both of them. "She's not done yet."

"I assumed I wasn't needed for this part."

Abby made a slowly seething noise through her teeth, matching the surprised smirk that Gibbs shot between the two of them.

And then he made two sharp motions with his hands in Abby's directions that made the scientist laugh and had Kate rolling her eyes.

"You guys know that's rude, right?"

"He just said you need more coffee." Abby turned back toward the screen with a jaunty nod. "Okay, so Petty Officer Latham's DNA carries a certain..."

He was still smirking at her even as she lost track of the other woman's commentary, his head turned back bemused by the prickly sharpness of her retort.

 _'What?'_ Kate mouthed defensively.

He shook his head minutely before giving her one brief sign, crooking his pointer finger near the corner of his smile and jerking it down before he swung his attention back into Abby's explanation of some evidentiary genetic miracle of blah, blah, blah...

She had no idea what he'd said and he damn well knew it.

She was hoping it was the sign for 'Insufferable Bastard'.

* * *

Tony's half leering smirk was bright with a kind of near knowledge, like he knew she was half hiding the book she was reading while they waited for Ducky. "Whatcha reading?"

She kicked farther back in the marginal space of the truck, shifting her feet to bridge up the space between where she was seated on the floor and the swung open door. "Mind your own business."

 _Like that'll work..._

She caught the shift of his hand as he reached forward, slapping at it and catching his prying fingers up just before he could tug the book away from her. "DiNozzo! Back off."

She couldn't help but grin as Tony's body thumped forward a little, his shoulders crouching inward after a full strong palm had clapped against his back and jerked into his jacket. "Leave 'er alone, DiNozzo."

"I just asked a question." He let the older agent draw him farther out of the opening, his shoulders swinging around to lean up into the door as he flashed Gibbs a shrugging smile. "She's being antisocial."

"Yeah?" Gibbs turned a quick glance over the way she'd drawn her knees up, the book cradled into her lap, its cover hidden pressed into her thighs. "I wouldn't wanna socialize with you either. Go get more photos."

He jerked his head back toward the crime scene, impatience at Ducky's delay (and Tony's uninhibited boisterousness) starting to wear his age over his features. He watched the younger man move back in the direction they'd come from before turning an oddly quirked look over her. A blink led the tip of his head as he searched over the drawn up way she was sitting on the floor, her back to the storage bins as she fiddled against the edges of the pages.

"What?" She shrugged up into his quiet watching.

"You good?" Gibbs asked softly, the gentleness implying concern in his mild confusion.

She would have laughed if it hadn't seemed so sweet a pause, so generally uncharacteristic of him and with more trepidation than expected. It wasn't as though she hadn't read in front of them before – on planes, in the truck, at her desk, in Forensics while she waited for Abby to make a miracle... She figured it was probably the fact that she'd stowed herself quietly away in the back of the truck for some privacy while she'd worked her fingers through the symbols and signs that she was trying to memorize and _why did they have to keep interrupting_? Now she'd completely forgotten 'potato'.

Abby would have been able to teach her if she'd asked... But Abby would have told _him_.

(In a bidding war of affection between _Anyone-Else_ and _Gibbs_ , Abby would have sold souls for him.)

And then he'd know that she was so... interested.

She glanced down into the open pages of the book she had across her legs and nodded, peeking a glance back up to find him still watching her with a cautious concern, his eyes darker than normal as he tipped farther into the shadows of the truck.

"Studying." Kate glanced over the diagram images of the Sign Language guide before flicking a glance back up and nodding toward the door. "You need me to - "

"He's got it." He was already pressing away from the back of the truck, starting to turn as he dragged his glance from the mostly grasped up and hidden book. "Front and center when Ducky gets here."

She just smirked into the confusion that had stifled his normal smile. "I will be."

* * *

** 'Jealous'. He told her she was jealous.


	2. Chapter 2

_Stop staring."_ They were both moving quickly across the lab and she angled her hip into the table, keeping her side toward them even as she surreptitiously followed the movement of Abby's hands.

He rolled his eyes as he let Abby slightly outpace him in her direction. _"Stop giving orders."_

That one had been pretty easy, actually. She'd been able to follow it directly off the movement of his hands. She'd remembered 'order' because it had unconsciously and instantly reminded her of him.

Because he was exceptionally adept at giving them and pretty perennially craptastic at taking them from anyone but Morrow or the Secretary of the Navy.

Abby had just snorted on her way toward her computer, pausing long enough on her way out of the Ballistics area to snap him a glance and a quick shift of her hands.

 _"She's not a meat."_

Meat? Kate frowned in confusion and felt her shoulders slump a little as the two of them bounced a skeptical glaring back and forth in silence. She made a show of laying out the evidence bags, checking them against the log as both their heads fractioned toward her movement and then back toward each other.

 _Steak._

 _Oh, for fuck's sake... Not meat, steak. Probably._

 _Well, it's gotta be some sort of... steak made sense. Right?_

No, it still didn't make sense. Not really, not in the least. But, really, she hadn't been studying all that long. And they were _fast_. It wasn't as though she could pause them and ask them to please sign slower for the linguistically challenged in the room.

 _"You're not boss."_

Kate snorted at his response, blinking quickly back over the evidence log and coughing over the fact that he'd made the accusation in the direction of the one woman who could probably convince him of near on anything if she said 'please-please-please' a whole lot-lot-lot. And that they'd noticed the derisive noise, her continued presence making Gibbs' shoulders rise higher as he tipped her a half smile and headed for Abby's computer.

And the unabashed knowing in Abby's eyes when she lifted her head was a singular sort of terrifying. Because the scientist was staring at her like she'd just discovered forensic evidence as to who had actually stolen the Lindbergh Baby.

Sciuto squinted briefly in Kate's direction as she rounded on her computer desk, her hands lifting to make a quick response. _"Ask her."_

And Gibbs' eyes burned through both wry and skeptical as he snagged his coffee from beside the younger woman's keyboard and turned past Kate's stillness, "You call me when you get an answer, Abs. You almost done?"

"Almost." She responded thoughtlessly, unconsciously, knowing the question was aimed in her direction as he stalked toward the doors. "I'll be up in a minute."

It took barely past a breath after the shushing of the doors closing for Abby to round on her.

"Eavesdropping," the scientist accused sharply even as her eyes went bright with excitement and her body went swinging to lean onto the table opposite her. "Evil, Kate."

She just shrugged one shoulder up, dipping her jaw supposedly innocently as she smiled. "Ask who?"

"Ask you." The younger woman plucked the log from her fingers quickly, disregarding the annoyed noise Kate made as she set it gently to the table and leaned closer. "You've been studying. When did you start?"

 _Hold up - ask me what?_

"Ask me what?"

Abby just grinned and shrugged, both her hands rising into answer. _"On a date."_

Well, that or something about 'dessert'.

But the wide grin Abby had over dark lips as she swung her head back toward her computer said that one was more likely than the other.

 _No way. Not possible. Gibbs wouldn't... and he just didn't. And it was... highly unlikely._

"Abby - "

"I'm on Gibbs time, Kate." The technician was signing off on the evidence that Kate had spread across the table, comparing the notation to the bags before initialing both. "He'll actually start getting grumpy if I don't figure this out."

"Did you just say 'date' or 'dessert'?"

"Guess it depends on what you wear." Glittered green eyes lifted with obvious taunting. "One could probably become the other."

 _He would never. Never ever never._

She wasn't even sure he was capable. Well, _of course_ he was... capable. Good God, he seemed... miles more than capable. But not with a brunette (who also happened to be a subordinate).

"Gibbs is not... he would never - "

"He watches you when you're not looking." And the younger woman made a quick tsk-ing noise against her cheek, _like, obvious information, Kate_. "He's had a thing for you since you were still Gestapo."

"The Secret Service is not - "

"Earth to Kate." Impatience took Abby's voice higher as she waved a flinging hand between them."Gibbs has hot pants for you."

 _Could he please start wearing them then?_

 _Because lately? All Grump-Ass Pants._

"Hot pants?" She felt her face pan sarcastic, her brow arched into the repetition. "Really?"

Sciuto just grinned as she plucked two of the evidence bags up in one hand. "You should probably let him in on the fact you know what he's saying before he really puts his foot in his mouth."

A knowing glance cocked across the table at the scientist, arms crossing a bit defensively, "You mean before you tell him?"

Abby just gave a swift shrug as she turned toward one of her machines. "You say 'tomato', I say 'Gestapo'."

Kate pouted at her a little as she backed away from the table with a swaying. "I can never remember 'potato'."

"It's the same as 'Ireland', pretty much." Scuito's voice tripped out brightly after her.

She rolled her eyes as she headed for the doors, "Cute."

"Idaho too!"

* * *

"Cough it up."

She startled into the nearness of the order, the flatly direct way he was sturdily pressed into the end of her desk and blocking her in. "What?"

"The book." Gibbs waved his fingers up between them as he nodded toward her gear, no give or leniency in the demand. "C'mon. Let's see it."

She shook a glance around the mostly emptied and darkened office. "What - "

"Kate." Thinned eyes grazed on her as he angled farther over where she was seated. "The book. Now."

A pout twisted her lips more to one side and she huffed a breath through her nose and spun her chair, reaching for her bag. "Abby tell you?"

"Nope." His response had been light but there was a definite weight to the way he attentively watched her pull the ASL guide book from her backpack, handing it up to him like some sort of contraband. "Y'can't keep your face outta this book and you signed 'thank you' to a Metro Lieutenant last week."

 _Aw, shiiiiiit._ She hadn't even realized she'd done it.

She'd completely outed herself without even realizing she'd done so.

And, _of course_ , he'd noticed.

"You're never gonna learn it all from a book." The movement of his hands was slow as they sloped the front and back cover, the book hedged into his chest as he flipped a few pages and then set it open and flat out to the top of her desk. "Gotta practice. Need a partner."

A wild smile curved her lips and she caught the way he watched it lay over mouth. "That an offer?"

"That an innuendo?" He asked quietly, his tone gritting hard even as he dazed in his watching of her dimples.

 _Was it? Sorta._

 _Apparently it'd backfired, though._

 _Fantastic. Good job, Kate._

"Look, Gibbs... I didn't ask for your help. I didn't - "

"You've been eavesdropping for weeks." His interruption was surprisingly tender, hushed by the half a smile that nearly claimed his lips but stayed leaning to one side as his head angled and he closed the book that was sitting mockingly open on her desk.

"Only a little." _Busted_. "Is it really eavesdropping if - "

"Yes," and his skeptical tone was belied by the fact that the smile had started creeping toward smirk.

"Well, then... okay, yeah." A margin of shame tipped through her voice as she avoided the blue of his eyes, her back suddenly aching after too many hours in her chair. "I guess I have."

"You really wanna learn?" he asked honestly, voice softened even farther but still toned in a way that implied he wouldn't accept feigned interest. That he was more than willing to oblige her curiosity so long as it was actually interest and not just messing around.

It was very Gibbsian, really. Noble in that it was all about honesty and straight forwardness. There was no lying to him and she knew that to her bones. But, really... it wasn't a lie. She did want to learn. Maybe for a whole slew of selfish and self gratifying reasons but... she did. If only because it would be something in common. A connection to him, newly formed. Something that wasn't work and wasn't dangerous and wasn't stressed.

Kate nodded once, her lips pouting unconsciously as her head angled. "I keep forgetting 'potato'."

The unabashed grin that graced his lips was entirely charmed as one of his brows went higher than the other, his posture gentling as his body slacked relaxed against the edge of his own desk, his head tipped toward her in a more casual manner than she'd expected.

He watched her a moment more, undiluted humor over his face. "Potato?"

"Mmm." She slowly turned her chair to meet the way he was facing her, leaning her elbow into the desk and jaw to her hand as she held his eyes. "Mental block, I guess."

He still wasn't providing the answer but, really, she didn't care. Not when his legs were so comfortably stretched toward hers and the lanky length of him was relaxed as he shrugged at her and smiled all over again. It was gentler this time, less brilliant but nearly all affection. A quiet chuckle came off him just before he blew out a breath, shaking his glance away from her as he searched out over the mostly empty office. A stolid nod tilted his jaw back in her direction and he lifted his right hand, motioning her closer.

"C'mere," he murmured on another nod, nearly stern, but mostly just the clear order that tended to live and breathe from his lungs.

Kate thinned him a questioning glance but pursed her lips up, watching the continued blankness of his features as she pressed up from the chair and stepped closer into his space. His left foot shifted enough to give her space, his balance resettling as his hand reached out and tugged along her wrist lightly to draw her forward and farther into his personal space than she'd dared. She moved to drop her hand from his and blinked up into his pointed watching as both his hands caught onto hers, a clearness in the color of his eyes that had her trusting and pliant as he stretched her hands out flat and downwardly faced. He started slowly finger spelling under the stretch of her right palm, watching her as she squinted into sorting it out.

Easy.

Four letters.

Just her name.

"That's not 'potato'."

"No, it's not." His response was blasé, even as he repeated the finger spelling.

K...A...

"I know how to spell my own name," she told him, doing her best to curb the impatience she felt in her throat. It wasn't all that easy when he was just intently smiling at her (because, actually, that was damn unnerving in the best of ways) and his hands were slowly stroking movements into her palms.

Gibbs just smirked her a smartassed look, brow arched high in playful indulgence. "Yeah?"

"Yes," she hissed it back at him, letting him see her (nearly completely fake) annoyance at his teasing.

He nodded as he loosened his fingers and lifted his hands flatly over hers, not taking his eyes away from the way she was staring at him even as he stretched his palms out on her hands. "Show me."

"You're not even watching."

The quick squeeze of his fingers against hers was light but purposeful, spurring her into movement as he completely disregarded where they were and how awkward (and, possibly, intimate?) they would have seemed to anyone passing through the late night office. "Show me, Kate."

She spelled her name out quickly under his right hand even as she shook her head at him, "Gibbs - "

"Again," he murmured.

Kate kept the growl from rising up her throat, choosing a tone more patient instead. "You're not teaching me anything new."

"Hush." His fingers went slowly shifting beneath her palms again and she held his eyes as that smirk came deliciously haunting back over his lips. His fingers moved slowly again but she couldn't seem to take her eyes away from his.

 _Want._

 _Yes, I do. You, thank you._

Kate quirked him a cautious glance as she silently lifted her hands from his and made the motion, drawing her upturned fingers curling toward herself as she signed the word in response. Gibbs gave her a briefly nodding smile, his hands lifting quickly in the quietness to grab at her fingers again. Kate breathed in slowly through her nose, brow furrowed as he lowered her hands but lifted another slow finger spelling against her loose and flat palms.

 _Need._

 _Oh, hell..._

She slowly angled her head at him, trying to keep the unavoidable smile from tipping too widely on her lips as she lifted a hand and made the sign for 'need'.

"Yeah," he blithely shrugged his shoulders farther forward but his eyes hadn't wavered from hers, the blue of them so much brighter than they should have been in the office darkness. "Think I do."

 _Oh, sweet-mother-loving-hell. Really?_

 _As in... really?_

 _As in..._ "Me?"

His eyes dropped over her lips as he lifted his hand and motioned in her direction, his smile both still and assured. _You_.

"Gibbs."

 _Right, Lesson One, Kate – stop saying his name that way. You sound like a teenage girl._

He snagged her fingers into his, gripping her hands still and caught up between them. "You need a partner, Agent Todd."

 _Right, should also probably stop making that sound too._

She swallowed the tail end of the slurred little moaning and let her hands relax into the way he was curving slow grazing thumbs against her knuckles. "That an offer, Agent Gibbs?"

"Nope." He shook his head starkly – just before a wicked grin lifted in her direction. " _That_ was innuendo."

 _Loud and clear, Gunny._

"I still don't remember - "

"You're not gonna need it tonight," he was murmuring it low along her shoulder as he leaned forward and across her, turning off her computer monitor and dousing the light, leaving them in the strangely hued haze of the emergency lighting, "trust me."

 _You smell like... Gibbs. Gibbs smell._

 _Gibbs smell is one of my very favorite smells._

"But Abby says you look at me like I'm a steak," she hummed it back quietly as he straightened, watching as his hands both loosened from her and he confidently snagged up her bag and coat from behind her. "You're definitely a steak and potatoes sorta guy."

Gibbs handed them over with a delightfully smug look that made the lines around his eyes crinkle and it had her sighing harder than she rightly should have been. "Don't think I need a side dish, Kate."

She strung her bag against her shoulder and bit into her lip, flickering a smile at him as she signed a questioning of 'dessert'.

His laugh was silent but his hand said more than enough as it brushed flat along her ribs and drew her out from behind the desk with him. "Now you're pushin' it."


End file.
